'Divest from Israel': Latest on Student Spring protests in US universities

Students at the University of Central Florida take part in a campus protest against the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza in Orlando, Florida, United States on April 26, 2024.

The United States is experiencing its own version of the Arab Spring — the Student Spring protests — in which students and staff across dozens of universities and college campuses are demanding that Israel end its "genocidal war" on Gaza and that their respective universities divest from academic institutions, think-tanks, research groups and defence firms supporting Tel Avi's war.

More than 550 students and professors have so far been arrested at college campuses across the country as protests gather pace.

Despite the risk of crackdowns and arrests, the protests continue to spread and grow bigger, with more campuses joining the fray almost daily.

Here is a look at the latest developments

Columbia University's president faces scrutiny for calling police on students

Columbia's embattled president has come under renewed pressure as a university oversight panel sharply criticised her administration for clamping down on a pro-Palestinian protest, saying the decision ran "contrary to the norms and traditions" of the Ivy League school.

President Nemat Minouche Shafik faced outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York police to campus on April 18 to dismantle an encampment of tents set up by protesters against Israel's war on Gaza.

After a two-hour meeting on Friday, the Columbia University Senate approved a resolution asserting that Shafik's administration had undermined academic freedom and disregarded the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by calling in the police and shutting down the protest.

"The decision ... has raised serious concerns about the administration's respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process," it said.

The senate, composed mostly of faculty members and other staff, plus a few students, did not specifically name Shafik in its resolution, avoiding harsher wording that could have put her job in greater jeopardy.

There was no immediate response to the resolution from Shafik or the university.

Arrests at Ohio State University

Three dozen people were arrested on charges of criminal trespass overnight at Ohio State University, the school confirmed amid ongoing nationwide pro-Palestinian student-led demonstrations.

Of the 36 people who were taken into custody at the university's main campus in Columbus, 16 were students, while 20 had no connection to the school, spokesperson Ben Johnson told Anadolu Agency in an email exchange.

Johnson told 10TV, a local CBS television network affiliate, that college rules prohibit camping and overnight events.

"Demonstrators exercised their First Amendment rights for several hours and were then instructed to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass," he told the outlet.

GWU students defy orders to wind up protests

Students continued their encampment at George Washington University [GWU] campus in the heart of the US capital, despite widespread crackdowns on university protests across the country.

Students from various Washington-based universities, along with academics and activists, gathered at the GWU campus for a second day to express solidarity with Palestinians and demand that their universities divest from financial ties with Israel.

Selina Al Shihabi, a 20-year-old undergraduate student, said they are demanding their universities to immediately divest from companies "that are supporting the Israeli Defense Forces [Israeli military] and are actively contributing to this genocide."

"We demand that it stops. And in solidarity with the people of Gaza, we have created camps to demonstrate how people in Gaza have lost their homes and are currently now living out of tents," she said.

"We don't plan to leave until the university divests," she stressed. Samar Saeed, a PhD student at Georgetown University, called for an "end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza," highlighting the US role in funding the conflict in the Palestinian enclave.

"This genocide has been funded by the US. And we're here to remember that Israel has destroyed all the universities in Gaza," she said. "They have killed professors, students and staff."

"GW Police have put up barricades around the perimeter to prevent people from entering or exiting the yard. They woke students up twice last night to intimidate them," the Student Coalition for Palestine at GWU said, adding some faculty members formed a human chain to protect them.

Students said the administration has threatened to suspend them if their protests against Israel's war on Gaza continued.

Activists involved in the "Liberated zone" or "Popular University for Gaza at GWU" are demanding the university "drop the charges against pro-Palestine organisers, protect pro-Palestine speech on campus and divest from companies selling weapons to the zionist regime [Israel]".

Protest continues at University of Michigan

University students protested against Israeli attacks on Gaza while sustaining their encampment on the grounds of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

On its fifth day, the encampment has grown in the number of tents on site and continues to see organisers create programmes for attendees while collectively calling for the University of Michigan to divest from its connections to Israel.

US lawmakers visit NY Columbia protest

Two US lawmakers visited a pro-Gaza encampment at New York's Columbia University to show support to protesting students.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, both critics of Israel's months-long brutal war on besieged Gaza, were seen in the encampment.

On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken congresswoman representing parts of the New York City boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, criticised the university's decision to arrest students.

"Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilise NYPD [New York police] on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force. NYPD had promised the city they wouldn't deploy SRG [Strategic Response Group police] to protests. So why are these counter-terror units here?" she wrote on X.

New encampments at University of North Carolina, Arizona State University

New anti-war encampments were established at the University of North Carolina and Arizona State University as protests calling for their institutions of higher learning to condemn Israel's war on besieged Gaza and divest from Israeli firms persist.

Police attempted to clear the sit-in at Arizona State University, but protesters defiantly remained on a campus lawn after their tents were torn down and carried away by law enforcement.

Demonstrators attempted to gather what they could, and locked arms around a canopy that was left standing.

School authorities attempted to clear them from the site by turning on sprinklers, but demonstrators quickly moved to place various objects, including large water bottles, on the sprinklers to block them.

"Water is life," protesters chanted, according to a live feed from the local ABC television station affiliate.

"One, two, three, four, occupation no more. Five, six, seven, eight, Israel is an Apartheid state. One, two three, four, we don't want your dirty war. Five, six, seven, eight. Israel is a terrorist state," they added.

Gaza encampment at University of Pennsylvania remains in place

A small but growing encampment remained in place on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

A statement issued by the school said officials were "closely monitoring" the encampment, which had started and had not received any reports of threatening or violent behaviour by the protestors.

However, they warned that protests or speech that violates the university's policies disrupts its business, or causes an "intimidating, hostile, or violent environment" would not be tolerated.

University of Florida

In Gainesville, Florida, home to the University of Florida, protesters were warned on Friday that students could face suspension and banishment for three years, and employees could be fired, if they violated rules including camping, using bullhorns, protesting inside buildings or possessing weapons.

Around 50 people have been protesting on campus since Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis directed the state’s universities to make it easier for out-of-state students facing anti-Semitism and other religious harassment in the wake of the Israel's war on Gaza to transfer to Florida campuses.

The Republican governor’s administration last fall also ordered state universities to ban a pro-Palestine student organisation, Students for Justice in Palestine, from campuses.

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Source: TRT